


What's the Deal with this Pop

by Darkmagyk



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Crack, Fanfiction, K-pop fandom - Freeform, M/M, Meta, Mythomagic (Percy Jackson), so much crack you guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23681335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkmagyk/pseuds/Darkmagyk
Summary: Inspired by true events:Someone is stealing Nico's fic and find and replacing all the names with K-Pop stars, and reposting it elsewhere.Nico does not understand k-pop or its fan, but Will's dad is into music, so surely he can explain it.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	What's the Deal with this Pop

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all, apparently someone is stealing a bunch of old classic Percabeth fics, find and replacing the names with K-Pop stars, and reposting them on Wattpad.  
> See [here](https://blackjacktheboss.tumblr.com/post/615533003193679872/its-the-year-of-our-lord-2020-and-my-fics-are).
> 
> It is 5:30 AM here, quarantine has broken me, and so I wrote 1,400 words of crack in about an hour and a half about it. 
> 
> Title from Nsync's Pop. Because I am not going to try to understand K-Pop for the first time at 5:30 in the morning in my sleep deprived haze of fic writing to find a title from there.

“You understand music things,” Nico snapped

Nico was often a little prickly. That was one of the things Will liked about him. His ‘I’ve seen worse’ attitude rubbed up against Will’s ‘dammit I’m a doctor’ cool in all the right ways. But the way he flung out the accusation wasn’t what Will normally expected. 

“I mean, a little bit,” Will said, “But it isn’t really my gift, you know that. Austin might-”

Nico didn’t let him finish. “What is K-Pop?”

“What?”

“What is K-Pop? I’m pretty sure we didn’t have it in the 40s, because we didn’t have any pop music, and I don’t understand it.” 

“Um, oh, that’s not really my deal, but it is why Kayla dyed her hair green. I could go get her or-.” Will tired, and then changed tactics, “It's pop music from South Korea. It's getting really popular internationally. Right now it is still pretty niche, but it's making inroads into the mainstream in the US.” 

“I know it is pop music from Korea,” He was staring at something shiny and bronze in his hands, and it took Will a few more seconds to realize it was a cell phone, in one of Leo's prototype anti-monster cases. Will didn’t see phones much. He did remember his boyfriend saying he might want to be one of Leo’s case studies because he wanted to try and get a phone, to make learning about the modern world and staying in contact with Hazel easier. But Will didn’t have a phone, so it isn’t like they messaged or whatever. “I just don’t understand like, fan-dom.” He said it like two separate words, the accent weird. 

“K-pop fandom is really big,” Will agreed, “I’m surprised you didn’t ask Billie.” 

“I know she’s Korean, but that doesn’t mean she’s a ravenous fan. That would be like someone asking me about pizza.” That _had_ happened before. A new Hermes kid who wanted to make fun, recognized di Angelo as being Italian, and didn’t know better than to not try and pick on the kid in the corner wearing all black. The the ground had cracked open and he’d spend the next four hours being chased by zombies. 

Will wanted to avoid zombies if at all possible today. 

“Let's start at the beginning.”

Nico’s cheeks turned just a little pink. He could go a bright, furious, Cabin 5 red, and this was not it, not yet. But it was promising. Nico’s blushes were one of Will’s sweet little pleasures in life. 

“Do you know what fanfiction is?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, sometimes I write Mytholomagic fanfiction. Um, for fun. And just, post it online.” 

Never in a million years would Will have guessed that. But in this moment, it made perfect sense. He smiled. 

“Do you now?”

“Yes,” Nico said, and his cheeks darkened, “mostly based on the um Perc- Perseus and Andromeda cards. It's like the second most popular ship and I write modern AUs. Um, modern Alternate Universe.” 

Will’s grin almost hurt his face. “You write real people fic about Percy and Annabeth?”

“No,” Nico said, all defence, which meant he did just that, “I write modern summer camp AUs about Perseus and Andromeda. Sometimes.” Will just stared at him for a long moment, “look, I can process my feelings however I need too.” 

“Sure,” Will agreed, “As long as I can read it.” 

Very reluctantly he handed over his phone, and Will began to scan the story. Then paused and turned to look at Nico, “Are we in here?” He asked, because when he cast around for the most famous mlm in Greek Mythology, if you didn’t go with Dad and Hyacinthus, you got a disrespectful, monstrous murderer and the stupid boyfriend. 

“No,” Nico said, and it was his normal, flat tone, which meant he probably wasn’t lying in the defensive. His eyes narrowed. “Oh gods,” He added, “No, I would never compare either of us to Achilles. Please, I still want to be allowed to sit at your table. And I like my body not full of arrows. I know what he did to your brother. You know I believe in giving the dead their due.” 

Will remembered the first time he’d heard the story of what Achilles had done to Hector once he’d been killed. He’d been ten years old and Lee had been physically shaking with anger as he told the story. Will had been horrified at the idea of a fellow son of Apollo’s body being dragged around as a war prize.

“I promise,” Nico assured him, “No Achilles.” And then physically lifted Will’s hand, so he could read the phone again. 

It just appeared to be more or less the story Will had heard about Percy and Annabeth’s first quest to retrieve the lightning bolt. With more of the elements of Perseus's journey added in. 

“Do you think Percy had a crush on Luke?” He asked, after he read the third description of how handsome he was, “Or did you?”

“I barely ever met the guy,” Nico said, zero embarrassment in this, “And I have no idea what Percy’s deal is. But there's no denying that Luke was super hot.” 

Will decided that he was dead, and that wasn't something he needed to worry about. Even if Nico had an affinity for the dead. And also blonds. 

So maybe he would revisit that later. But now he just read the story. 

“So, this is cute, and well within your normal levels of creepiness.” No zombies or eerie proclamations about death being in the air. Will handed the phone back to Nico, “What does this have to do with K-Pop.”

“So, apparently K-Pop fans also write fanfiction,” Nico said, he clicked on his phone and then handed it back to will, “Someone sent me this.” 

It was a different website but it was the same story he’d just read, Nico’s story. Only the names Perseus and Andromeda had been replaced with two names he vaguely recognized from Kayla’s K-Pop days. 

“Did someone just steal this?” 

“Apparently,” Nico said, “Not just mine, either, a bunch of people in the Mythomagic community.” 

Will scrolled through the pages. 

“There is a lot of this.” He said. Will tended to feel like his life was Greek Mythology fanfiction some days, so he couldn’t get into a game about fighting monsters, when he’d done it in real life. But Nico lived for Mythomagic. And apparently working out his feelings in it and fanfiction. 

Will scanned through more of these ripoffs. One had a note at the top of the page, talking about how hard writing was. Will frowned at it. “There are so many gods to pray too for some writing inspiration. Why just steal things? All the praise,” and there was a lot of praise, “is meaningless.” 

“I was hoping you’d have some great insight,” Nico said, “Because you understand music.” 

“I only understand music more than you. And that is a really low bar.” Will joked, “But also, I know some k-pop fans, and I don’t think they’d do this. I think they probably like their faves so much they’d want to imagine and write their own stuff.” He handed the phone back to Nico. “Sorry, I can’t provide more help. But psychiatry isn’t my focus.”

“You know, I know you haven’t actually been to medical school, right.” Nico said. 

“Yet.” Will reminded him, “I haven’t been to medical school yet. But I still won’t be a psychiatrist. But what are you going to do about it?”

“Some of the other people are looking through the terms of service. They aren’t posting their stories where I post mine, but they want to see if plagiarism can get them taken down,” Nico explained. 

“Right, yeah,” Will nodded along, “And what are _you_ going to do about it?” He repeats. 

Nico’s grin is just a little cruel. It makes him look particularly handsome. Will’s a healer. He wants to fix people, to help them, to make them better. But Nico’s an outlet for that vindictive side he doesn’t always feel like he can let out. Apollo, after all, is the god of plagues as well as healing. The doctor heals, and it is supposed to be compassionate and impartial. But the Underworld judges. And sometimes they punish. 

“I was going to see if an Athena or Hephaestus camper could track who this is, through internet magic, or whatever,” Nico says, “And then I’m going to send ghosts after them.”

“Now, that sounds like the man I love.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out on [tumblr](http://darkmagyk.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Edit: apparently the person who did this on Wattpad deleted because they got found out. Assume that happened in this AU, too, but that Nico still sent ghosts after them.


End file.
